Revision as of 10:54, 12 April 2014

Element Zero

Element Zero or Eezo is a strain of Handwavium that follows the story of the Mass Effect universe. In its natural form its a blue glowing liquid substance. Like its role model it reacts to electrical currents, creating zones of changed gravity. As most Handwaved based substances, its detailed mechanism is unknown, but its said that it generates or repels dark energy to influence the basic workings of physics.

Mass Effect fields can not only propel objects at high and even superluminal speed, it can also create impact barriers, similar to the particle shields of the Warsies. Element Zero is not used up while creating this fields, but needs a constant input of electrical energy.

Eezo does not replicate as easily as some common Handwavium strains and its production seems to be difficult, because Catgirl Industries seems to be always low on their stockpile. It can only be obtained at Catgirl Industries, mostly built into the drones they sell.

Mass Effect field drive

Element Zero can be used as the core of a reactionless drive system. The so called ‘Mass Effect’ wraps the target into a shell of Dark Energy, which moves forward at great speed. When energized by an electrical current an Mass Effect core can manipulate the mass of objects within the drives effect. This effect create a speedy drive, which allows the ship or drone to quickly reach the maximum speed, cutting the electricity drops the ship down to normal speed quickly.

It also can be used to create artificial gravity fields within a limited radius. Increased gravity can be inconvenient to people inside, but mass effect fields have never been observed more than 3g or 4g, which limits the amount of damage it can do. It is assumed that this is a manifestation of the slapstick effect.

The largest first generation Mass Effect drive ever sold by Catgirl Industries, which were developed in winter 2015, is able to only accelerate a body up to a diameter of one meter. The drive can also project a single circular forcefield surface with a diameter of 90 cm, which can protect the interior of the drive field against kinetic damage from one direction.

Unhappy with this, Catgirl Industries continued to focus on a research project to create a better iteration of the drive. In 2017 Catgirl Industries released the first drone with a second generation drive. This new generation not only pushed the maximum field diameter to two meters, it also included the forcefield protection into the drives engine field, allowing a full 360° protection. The protection is still mostly limited to kinetic weapons.

Trivia

• The energy consumption of the drive peaks quickly when going beyond cruising speed. Most drones built by Catgirl Industries cannot store enough energy for sprint speed for more than a few seconds. Other drones are even limited to lower speeds to conserve energy.
• Mass Effect drives always seem to produce a spherical drive field, even if the drone has a different shape.
• The forcefields glow bright red when hit by a projectile until they regenerated their strength. They can be overloaded by multiple smaller impacts.
• Pure gravity generator Mass Effect cores cannot produce forcefields, but can cover a much larger area than the full space drive.

Quirks

• Funny looking cat! Mass Effect drive fields sometimes produce a static charge during long operations.
• Fireworks. Mass Effect drives produce a lot of light when the ship engage its drive at superluminal speeds.
• Game Mechanics. The shields of a mass effect field does not begin to recharge until it got some time without further impacts.